Making Progress in Myanmar
It’s certainly relieving to read that positive changes are being made in some countries. Take Myanmar, for example, which has been under military rule for about five decades. The Burmese military regime has had endless and persevering democratic opposition, and yet has famously placed its people under oppression and human rights violation. Of course, this lack of “democratic principles” in Myanmar caused a strain on multiple diplomatic relations that it once had with other countries, like the US, UK, and France.
More recently, however, Burmese President Thein Sein has shown the rest of the political world that he is serious about bringing about reform in his unstable country. According to this article on The Economist, this past week, his government released some 300 political prisoners. Some of them had been imprisoned since 1988, after the famous “88 Generation Movement” by student protesters. This, along with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit in December, paves way for restrengthening of ties between Myanmar and the other countries. Norway and Australia are also opening up the doors to relations with Myanmar, and foreign officials are realizing how serious Thein Sein seems about the reform.
It’s definitely not an easy task to reform your entire country and its political system to introduce and accept democracy. Thein Sein probably is aware of all the challenges that lie ahead — releasing political prisoners is just a beginning step of many that will and should follow. If Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy wins seats in parliament in the upcoming by-election this April, Myanmar will be well on its way to joining the other established, democratic countries. America has been actively pressuring the Burmese government to release all the prisoners – with the incentive of Myanmar’s prospect of abandoning its political isolation in the international realm.
It seems that the US has a lot of say in it – as the argued hegemon of the political world and a country that has been promoting democracy around the world for years. When a country tries to reform itself to form a democratic system, it usually follows the Western model of democracy that we find in the US, France, etc. And there is no doubt that American, out of all nations, will be watching closely what goes on in Myanmar.
